Progress being made at S.A.’s ‘Little Italy’

Before the highways went up, before urban renewal efforts turned houses into parking lots, there was a thriving Italian neighborhood in the northwestern part of downtown, on San Pedro Creek’s west bank. In the late 1800s, immigrants arrived there from Spezzano della Sila, a small town in southern Italy near the tip of the boot. In 1890, the immigrants started the local chapter of the Christopher Columbus Italian Society. And in 1926, they built the San Francesco di Paola Catholic Church, and then the hall next door two years later.

Currently, the two buildings are the only remnants of the old community. But they are hardly specters. The Italian immigrants’ descendants still worship there. Their dinner fundraisers — held several times a year — date back to the late 1930s. This weekend, the spaghetti and meatball meal goes from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Most of the time, though, the area is desolate. In front of the church, Columbus Park has been cleaned up some by the city’s Parks and Rec department, but small numbers of transients and the homeless still spend their leisure time there.

Three years ago, the society unfurled its plans for Little Italy: a remake of the 3.5-acre site into a vibrant park and mixed-use development. On the church’s land, 10 buildings — around 75 to 100 units on the upper floors, and shops on the lower floors. Cappuccino shop. Gelato parlor. An Italian bike shop.

Realizing those plans will take years — and millions of dollars.

This morning, however, the Italian society and a few dignitaries, including District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal, celebrate the first building blocks.

Two four-foot-high, brick and cast stone walls reading “Piazza di Colombo,” at the intersection of Columbus and Martin streets, will be dedicated in a news conference. It’s Italian for Columbus Park.

The society financed the sign. Parks and Rec spent about $5,000 on a new sidewalk, which invites pedestrians to veer off Martin and into the park. In February, six Italian cypress and five Mexican olive trees were planted at the park; $1,600 was used from the city’s Tree Mitigation Fund. There are plans to plant grape vines to grow over the large stone and wooden trellises.

In the long term, the city and Little Italy San Antonio (the nonprofit group formed to lead the development) could enter into an agreement in which the group manages the park.

The group must first complete a master plan and determine the project’s overall cost. Monaco thinks the whole idea could come to fruition in 3 to 5 years.

“It works real well with the mayor’s SA2020 project where he wants to have more downtown development, and we’re right there,” Monaco said. “They’re very proud of our project. Everybody in the city seems to be pulling for us on this deal.”

The first part of the fundraising venture is to start with the park. They have early commitments from merchants who are willing to sell their wares from kiosks at the park. The group has talked with the city and county about public dollars, as well.

Roberto Carlos Treviño has been the architect on the project from the beginning.

“This isn’t just some kind of theme park,” Treviño said. “This used to be an Italian neighborhood. The highway sort of disbanded the neighborhood.”

The perfect scenario, Treviño said, would be to have the descendants come back to live in the development.

“So you have people who used to once live here, or their descendants, living here,” he said.

The group sees Little Italy coalescing with the other down-the-road projects nearby. The streetcar line, they say, should have a stop at the park. Little Italy would contribute to the development envisioned by a remade San Pedro Creek, a Bexar County project. The University of the Incarnate Word’s proposed medical school would be located at the Fox Tech High School athletic field, just on the other side of the creek’s northern inlet.

“We want to make it as authentic as we can,” Treviño said. “The park isn’t going away. The church isn’t going away. The hall isn’t going away. We see this as a logical conclusion.”